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I stepped in toward him, clutching his face in my sweaty hands. "I don’t care what it’s called, as long as I’m there with you."
I pressed our lips together, his sweetness filling up every part of me. Then I had a thought and pulled away, a little too abruptly.
"I mean, I’d like to go with you, but only if you want me to. Shit, sorry. I only just realized I haven’t asked you if this is what you wanted. Maybe you were just looking for a holiday bonk?—"
A rough, raucous laugh escaped from Mitchell. "I always thought snog was going to be my favorite-sounding British word, but I think we have a new winner."
"You like bonk?"
He looped his arms around my shoulders, his eyes lifting to meet mine. "I do. I like the word...and the action."
"And…?" I asked pensively. "Do you want me to go back with you? I know it’s sudden. We’ve only just met. There’s probably a ninety-nine percent chance we’ll never make it?—"
His lips crashed into mine, his tongue forcefully breaking its way into my mouth, silencing me.
"Words," I eventually muttered into his lips. "I need words."
"Yes." He puffed the word into my mouth. "Yes, I want you to come back with me. More than anything."
Our lips, tongues, and teeth clamored away, gnawing at each other with a fierceness, an intensity, that bore down into the deepest recesses of who I was.
I was lost in him, and yet at the same time, I was finding myself—my true self.
All this time I’d spent trying to find myself in the world, looking in all the wrong places and with all the wrong types of guys, when the answer was a whole lot simpler.
Mitchell was helping me uncover who I really was. And the man I was going to be.
I couldn’t wait to begin our new life together.
EPILOGUE - MITCHELL
"...happy birthday, dear Cayman, happy birthday to youuuu!"
I carefully placed the large chocolate cake down on the table in front of the birthday boy. His cheeks flushed adorably as he flicked his eyes between me and Jedfire—probably relieved that our horrible, off-key rendition had finally come to an end—before swooping down and blowing the candles out in one go.
"Yay," I clapped, happiness filling my chest as it had every day for the past month since we’d returned—together!—to Cowbell Creek. The smile hadn’t left my lips, either.
I didn’t think I’d ever forget that magical moment when Cayman stood outside my room and told me he wanted to come back with me. That took real strength. I already knew he was a decent, good guy. That only confirmed it even more.
It was the right thing to do. He knew it, and I did, too. Even as I’d been packing, I remembered that soft voice inside calming me down and letting me know that things would work out in the end. And boy oh boy, had they ever.
"Did you make a wish?" I whispered into his ear, but obviously loudly enough for Jed to hear, given the overexaggerated groaning coming from his direction. My brother stepped out of the dining room—I assumed to bring in the plates I’d forgotten in the kitchen—as Cayman and I stared into each other’s eyes.
"I didn’t have to make a wish." His fingers landed on my forearm, brushing the same spot he’d touched when we first met at the swimup bar. I secretly thought it was his favorite part of my body. Well, at least in the top five, anyway. "I’ve gotten everything I could have hoped for right here."
I wiggled down into his lap as he let out a series of cute giggles.
"Urgh, get a room, you two." Jed returned, minus plates and instead holding the vintage brass antique armillary globe grandpa had bought me for my thirteenth birthday.
"We do have a room," I countered playfully. "Two, actually."
Cayman had scored a job go-go dancing at a nightclub called D.I.C.K in LA. (It stood for Daddy Issues? Coming Knocking, if you were wondering, by the way.)
He worked Friday through Sunday nights, so we spent our weekends in L.A at a nice rental apartment he’d found in Santa Monica and weeknights at my place in Cowbell Creek. It was a good mix of quiet laid-back rural life with the excitement of a busy city like L.A. which I was getting more and more used to.
"Why didn’t you bring plates from the kitchen?" I frowned at Jed. "And what are you doing with my globe?"
"I’ll go get the plates in a second. First, I need to figure out what I’m doing this weekend."
